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VISION OF BUILDING A GLOBALLY REPUTABLE CHAIN OF WORLD-CLASS HOTELS.

TAJ: THE ROAD AHEAD

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OPS & SERVICES F&B - TEA

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A cup of tea is a mandatory morning rou-

tine for most people. And it is the first

thing they reach out to when they are

travelling to get the perfect start to their

day. Naturally then, tea has come to oc-

cupy an important part of the hospitality business with

both hoteliers and tea vendors realising that it has tran-

scended from being just a drink to a lifestyle choice.

Hotels use a comprehensive mix of traditional first

flush Darjeeling and Assam teas along with other

popular varieties like Earl Grey and English Breakfast.

“However, looking at the trend of moving towards

healthy eating we also offer a wide variety of tisanes

and flowering tea. Jasmine pearl tea is extensively

used in our Asian restaurant as an accompaniment

with food. Homemade green tea ice cream is a favour-

ite amongst guests,” said Ashish Neha, F&B director at

JW Marriott Kolkata.

Looking at the rise in demand for curated tea experi-

ences, the tea selection at Park Hyatt Hyderabad’s The

Living Room is undergoing an overhaul. “Our soon-to-

be launched tea selection will host some of the finest

choices of boutique estates. From herbal, black, re-

gional, green to Oolong, the range will cater to every

tea aficionado. Be it intimate conversations, or crucial

business decisions; the famous Irani Chai is a favourite

accompaniment,” said Mohit Malhotra, executive assis-

tant manager, F&B, Park Hyatt Hyderabad.

Tea drinking culture in India is not new and hence

there is a huge demand of good quality Assam and

Darjeeling Tea for amongst connoisseurs. However, the

most popular cuppa still remains home-style ready-

made tea with milk that more often than not is pre-

pared with the CTC variety.

Fortunately, since India is one of the largest produc-

ers of tea in the world, good quality tea is widely avail-

able. However, ironically, most Indians do not know the

value of premium tea and prefer the milky variety with

lot of sugar that dilutes the taste of this delicate brew.

“India is famous for its tea production, but if you give

Darjeeling tea or Assam tea to someone, they will not

With over 3,000 known varieties, tea is amongst the most popular hot brews consumed globally. From curated tea experiences to infusing it in food and beverages, chefs are getting increasingly imaginative with this ingredient

BY BINDU GOPAL RAO

THE CUP THAT CHEERS

Jyothish Vasu, manager operations, Tea Nest, Nature Resorts

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HOTELIER INDIA | APRIL 2017 | www.hotelierindia.com

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56 HOTELIER INDIA | APRIL 2017 | www.hotelierindia.com

be able to recognize the tea they are drinking. Darjeel-

ing tea is exotic world over, but people fail to appreci-

ate it in the country of its origin. The most favoured

tea in India is ‘Chai’, an indigenous preparation,” said

Snigdha Manchanda, India’s first certified tea somme-

lier and founder of TeaTrunk.com

WINDS OF CHANGE As consumers today seeking healthier and innovative

food alternatives, tea vendors and hoteliers alike are

exploring ways to use tea to help them in their pursuit.

Teamonk Global, for instance, has initiated a food

pairing initiative to allow people to discover newer nu-

ances of tea. “While mocktails and cocktails have syn-

ergies in the line of beverage creation, replacing water

with fortified green tea and white tea is being explored

globally. We have a nutritionist and a food innovator

onboard to help us reconnoitre tea beyond its scope

as a beverage,” said Ashok Mittal, CEO of the company.

Uzma Irfan, director, The Prestige Group and Found-

er, of Sublime House of Tea added that of late, the tea

market has been flourishing because of the awareness

spread about the benefits of green tea. “Slowly, con-

sumers are realizing that many other tea variants have

just as many health benefits, and there is an increased

demand for exotic flavours like Oolong and chamo-

mile. Industry chefs and mixologists generally prefer to

work with long leaf tea in preparing creative concoc-

tions, and consumers are showing a lot of interest after

we explain the teas to them,” she added.

A BIT OF THIS AND THATBlending is the word of the year when it comes to all

things tea. This translates to creative mergers of tea

with other herbs, spices and fruits for beverages; tea-

infused jams and desserts in food; and paying more

attention to using it in cocktails. Here the quality and

freshness of teas is of prime importance.

Tea Nest Nature Resorts in Coonoor serves organic

basil lemon tea, organic rosemary tea (all in house spe-

cialities) jasmine tea, chamomile tea, silver tip, golden

tip, lemon grass tea, tea nest blend tea as well as the

regular black tea. What’s more, it is probably the only

restaurant in the Nilgiris that offers tea-themed menus.

“Tea works well as meat tenderizer because of its

tannin content. Normal black tea contains maximum

tannin amongst as compared to other varieties,”

opined Jyothish Vasu, operations manager at Tea Nest

Nature Resorts. Their specially curated tea menu in-

cludes dishes like Flowery Orange Pekoe Organic Tea

Smoked Paneer Salad paired with Orange Pekoe Tea,

Orange Pekoe Tea Kettle Broth Soup, Green Tea Lem-

on Grass Sorbet and Tea Braised Paneer Brochette

paired with the House Special Organic rosemary tea.

That’s not all, the resort also pairs tea with food. So,

guests can have slices of yam or cottage cheese with

organic pickled tea leaves and herbs, paired with the

local brew (Singara estate tea), tea braised Spaghet-

ti Aglio e Olio paired with Frost tea and Tea Custard

topped with Chamomile Tea Compote paired with Nil-

giri black tea!

Tea can accentuate the fruitiness and smokiness in

certain foods without overpowering its other flavours.

“After wine, it is the next best choice for chefs to use

in their dishes. Apart from single estate teas, we have

an in-house R&D team that works on creating newer

blends, that hotels can include in their dishes,” said

Kaushal Dugar, CEO and founder, Teabox. He added

that his company does this by visiting tea gardens in

Darjeeling, Assam, the Nilgiri, Kangra, Sikkim and now

even Nepal, tasting and selecting select varieties and

vacuum packing it to retain its freshness before ship-

ping it to hotels and restaurants.

RISE OF SPECIALTY BRANDSWhile there are the big tea brands like Tata Tea, Tet-

ley, Brooke Bond, Society Tea, Wagh Bakri, Lipton, etc,

there has been an emergence of artisanal and spe-

cialty names in recent times. Organic India (P) Ltd. is

one of the leading multinational company in organic

and wellness category that produces tulsi tea range,

herbal supplements and packaged foods such as qui-

noa, ghee, chyawanprash, coconut oil, honey etc. Their

advanced processing methods and dehydration tech-

nologies ensure that the herbs retain their maximum

level of potency for the highest quality, most effective,

pure and natural.

AusumTea specialises in a range of signature, hand-

made and organic tea blends and tisanes (fruit infu-

Mohit Malhotra, executive assistant manager, F&B, Park Hyatt Hyderabad.

Mayura Rao and Medha Rao, founders of AusumTea.

Uzma Irfan

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1. AusumTea specialises in a range of signature, handmade and organic tea blends and tisanes.

OPS & SERVICES F&B - TEA

58 HOTELIER INDIA | APRIL 2017 | www.hotelierindia.com

sions) that are packed with a variety of herbs, fruit,

flowers and spices. “Our brews do not contain added

sugar and are preservative-free, with little or no caf-

feine. Currently, we have nine blends in our portfolio

and hope to add an equal number by this year-end.

We currently offer our blends as loose leaves and are

shortly diversifying into teabags,” said Mayura Rao and

Medha Rao, AusumTea’s founders.

MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICEWith the presence of so many tea vendors, choosing a

supplier who can assure consistent quality and quanti-

ty at the right price is crucial for hotels and restaurants.

Most hotels prefer working with national companies

rather than directly dealing with tea estate owners.

Neha explained that this was because the national

vendors are more accessible and could supply required

quantities at shorter notice. “Tea estate owners have

a minimum quantity requirement per variety, which is

not always viable if you are providing a vast selection,

as many varieties lose their freshness and aroma be-

yond a certain shelf life,” he added.

Rahul Gautam, assistant F&B manager, The Leela

Ambience Convention Hotel, Delhi explained that his

property opted for long term contracts as they believe

that, the longer the term a supplier provides to a busi-

ness, the better their understanding of hotel’s needs

and processes. This improves the service and makes

the procurement cycle more efficient.

WORKING WITH TEA SOMMELIERSJust like wine sommeliers, one can rub shoulders

with tea sommeliers at various F&B events in hotels as

brands leverage their vast knowledge to educate chefs

and end-customers about the finer nuances of tea and

the best way to appreciate it. A tea sommelier’s trained

palette is sensitive to the numerous flavour profiles of

tea and how to match it with different foods.

“We are not tea brokers, traders or resellers. As crafts-

men, we work directly with tea gardens, from where we

source the teas and craft our own unique blends. Hence,

our teas are differentiated from your regular supermar-

ket teas, even if they have the same name,” Manchanda

said, explaining the role of this new breed.

“We work with them to give guests an educative

session that focuses on tea history, medical advan-

tages and how to mix correct tea in light of the fact

that diverse teas having distinct temperature to ex-

tract their flavour. We do have tea estate walk where

we clarify about the climatic condition required for tea,

soil, elevation, the sort of tea plants developing in Nil-

giris and obviously we need our visitors to feel the tea

in total,” said Vasu.

The Sublime House of Tea, too, works closely with

Anamika Singh, a Delhi-based tea sommelier who

conducted several workshops for them. “We have also

worked with chefs to demonstrate how tea can be in-

corporated into cooking. The main purpose of Sublime

House of Tea was to educate people about tea as not

just a beverage, but also an art form. We achieved this

using multiple means, be it through workshops con-

ducted by industry veterans or through other forms of

content, including digital books on the Art of Tea, cre-

ated by a chef and sommelier,” added Irfan. Much as

tea tasting is a chemical science, most of it ultimately

comes down to the art of tea making. “In their journey,

Mayura Rao and Medha Rao leveraged the vast knowl-

edge from estates that they source from to help them

s understand the basic behaviour of tea such as – main

notes, ideal method of steeping, storage etc. “To build

on this, our tea tastings have convinced us that no two

people are able to identify the same taste or aroma

that they are experiencing while drinking the tea. The

ultimate test is the organoleptic test – the use of sen-

sory organs to judge a cup of tea to suit an individual’s

taste,” they opined. Well, there is so much more brew-

ing in your teacup now that it is indeed time to raise a

toast to the cup that matters! HI

2. Park Hyatt Hyderabad Exterior Façade

3. The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel

Rahul Gautam, assistant F&B manager, The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel.

Snigdha Manchanda, Tea Garden.

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